Mud volleyball

Since we couldn't play in Hannibal this weekend, we found another mud tournament in Tuscola, IL. Daniel and Nathan got to play with us in their first mud tournament, and Kelsea (Kate's niece) ended up getting picked up by another team. We ended up taking 4th place out of 49 teams...would have been nice to win the t-shirts, but we were pretty happy with the results. Of course, I have some pictures...



They had four mud courts set up side by side. The lines were yellow rope ties, most of which were under the mud/water, making it pretty difficult to determine whether or not a ball was "in" or not. There was also the occasional hazard of a player on the next court diving across yours in a (usually futile) attempt to save the ball.



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Unlike Hannibal, where the competition is pretty serious, this tournament had several teams who dressed to...if not impress, then at least get attention. There was the team of guys all wearing super short denim cut-offs (a la Daisy Duke or Tobias Funke, if you're a fan of Arrested Development)...and then there was...this team...



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Sorry I didn't warn you, but how do your prepare yourself for such a sight?? What the picture doesn't show (and hopefully Bonnie got a better shot of the team) is that at least 4 of the six guys on the team were in some form of Speedo. Ugh.



Here's Kelsea playing with her team...


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I think they played four games before being eliminated.



And a couple shots of our team (Kate, Jeff, Daniel, Nathan, Chad, Karen, and Casey)...



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(That blue hat in the middle of the mud splash beneath the volleyball is Karen's boyfriend, Chad.)



We lost our second game and had to go through the loser's bracket, at one point playing 5 straight games. By the time we lost again and were knocked out, we were really muddy.


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The little kids got into the mud, too, but Bonnie took those pictures. They had a great time. They also had a blast cleaning off in the showers afterwards. Just like playing in a giant sprinkler, I guess.


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Most of us had some bumps and bruises after the game. Scrapes and scratches, Jeff bent back a finger, and Daniel's bare foot was stepped on with a cleat. My knee had a collision with Casey's cleat, and I had a pretty good bump for a while.


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That night we went to see fireworks with Carol and Mike and Karen, Chad, and their kids.

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The fireworks were beautiful.


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You can see that Kelsea was enthralled. Haha.


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We also got the chance to do some swimming and relax a little in the hot tub.



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All in all, it was a nice trip.

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